Not a shocker: HP names Whitman chairman of the board

In news that surprised no one, Hewlett-Packard named Meg Whitman as its latest chairman of the board on Thursday. Ralph Whitworth, who had been serving in that post, resigned earlier this week citing his health.

In other news, incumbent director Pat Russo is now the lead independent director and HP named Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO and chairman of Alcoa, was named to the board.

On Thursday, HP’s board also declared a cash dividend of $0.16 per share on the company’s common stock, payable on October 1, 2014.

Whitman is presiding over the transition of an iconic tech company that has already ridden many transitions from its roots in calculators and test instruments to being a major supplier of printers, servers and PCs. Now it continues to juice its hardware business while also pushing more into cloud and related services.